and his father told him to divorce her, but because he loved her he would not. ʿUmar then mentioned the matter to the Prophet ﷺ, who instructed Ibn ʿUmar to divorce her.

A similar report concerns a mother who kept urging her son to divorce his wife; the Prophet ﷺ made clear that maintaining kinship ties—filial piety in this case—is a means to enter Paradise. The indication is that, had the son honored his mother by divorcing his wife, that would have been a cause for his admission to Paradise.

Yet not every parent who orders a son to divorce his wife must be obeyed. A man once asked Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (may Allah have mercy on him): “My father says, ‘Divorce your wife,’ while I love her.” Imām Aḥmad replied, “Do not divorce her.” The man objected, “Did not the Prophet ﷺ command Ibn ʿUmar to divorce his wife when ʿUmar ordered it?” Imām Aḥmad responded, “And is your father ʿUmar? We know with absolute certainty that ʿUmar would not have told ʿAbdullāh to divorce his wife except for a legitimate religious reason—one Ibn ʿUmar may not have been aware of. It is inconceivable that ʿUmar would instruct his son to separate from his wife without a sound legal basis; such a thing is far-fetched.”

Accordingly, if your father or mother tells you to divorce your wife, yet you love her and can find no valid Islamic ground for doing so, then do not divorce her. This is a private concern in which no one should intrude between a man and his spouse.